Philotic Web

Can we see the invitations once they're sent (or earlier, if you're comfortable!)? And did we see the save the dates and I just forgot, but if not, can we see those too?

So glad to hear things are on track!

Ali, I'll take pictures when I get a chance!

Woot woot.

spent all weekend on the wedding. 27 days!

Bridesmaids dresses are DONE. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA:


AND I booked my hair and makeup trial AND a haircut/set for the day of my engagement photos. AND booked an appointment to meet with the alcohol supplier and place an order.

I am on a roll, people.

So, on the plus side, I sent out ALL of my thank you notes for each of the bridal showers less than one week after the events took place.

But I still haven't sent out a single wedding invitation.

David had a fit of insomnia earlier in the week and decided to be helpful by addressing some envelopes. This is awesome for so many reasons. They look fantastic, because he has wonderful, stylized handwriting (if he had time to address all the envelopes I'd beg him to, but half of them will sadly be done in my weird, loopy, inconsistent style). Also, it's wonderful that he used his sleepless time to help me out, since he knows how much those have been hanging over me and he doesn't usually have time to pitch in with things like that right now.

However.

A lot of them will need to be done over. He's left off the names of almost everyone's significant others. This is rude (super unintentionally) and they can't be sent out that way, especially since many of the couples are living together, and in one case he left off someone's wife! This is partly my fault, because he went off the address list I keep lying around, which leaves some of these details off. But I know in my head that they need to be added, so I don't mind working off the incomplete list. Also, we do have an official, proper address list floating around, but the incomplete one was sitting right in with the invitation stuff. In some cases the missing person's name can be written in after the fact, but in many cases not. I'm worried now, that we won't have enough envelopes and will have to order more.

I had REALLY wanted to get these done and in the mail this week. But now I'm bringing them up to the cabin with me, and working on them all weekend. They WILL go in the mail on Monday. (And Ali, I promise to take a picture before they're all packed up).

Other wedding stuff continues to roll along. We've asked David's cousin's girlfriend to act as our Day Of Coordinator and she's very kindly agreed. I'm starting to hunt around for shoes and other accessories. My sister's bridesmaid dress came in and it's just lovely. Julie has ordered hers. Grey dresses from JCrew, but they're each getting different styles and fabrics so one will be light grey and one will be darker. And both dresses were on major sale, and both girls are happy, so that's such a huge weight off my chest.

We have an appointment to place our alcohol order (we're going in and meeting with the supplier, tasting some wines, and trying to secure a few kegs of gourmet root beer) in mid-June. Our engagement photos are scheduled for the first weekend in July (and will either be set at the Farmer's Market or the Library, at this point, depending on weather).

I really and truly have let go of it all, so I'm feeling less emotional upheaval and more quiet focus.

David and I have started to write our ceremony, which is so...I don't have words.

92 days.

10 days!

672 days...

When we started registering, while walking through macy's I pointed out the Martha Stewart and Emeril and other chefs lines of cookware and said, "we're not registering for any of that stuff." "Why not?" asked Renee. "Because it's usually crap stamped with a name to make it sell better," I said. Then when we signed up for the registry, the macy's wedding person said, "I recommend staying away from the Martha Stewart stuff. We get more returns from the chef lines of product than anything else!" So we didn't register for anything chef line.

Then we decided to get rid of my corning loaf pans, they were white, but had discolored badly and were impossible to clean. I'd pointed out that I didn't want to register for any loafpans that had a nonstick coating, that had rolled/folded seams inside because the Nonstick prevents high heat baking and that rolling/folded seams inside the bakepan are just going to be a nightmare to clean (plus water will probably take for ever to drip dry out of them). So that mean that there were no loafpans sold at Crate and Barrel or Macy's that we could register for. So Renee registered for some Paula Dean brand stoneware loafpans on Amazon. They were very like the calphalon but with a dark color instead of white.

We got those stupid Paula Dean pans yesterday and today, washed and dryed them. After taking them off the dish rack, renee set one pan inside the other and both BROKE. What a piece of Junk!

And then while looking on amazon for loaf pans, it's virtually impossible to find a decent one that I want. I do find it hilarious that when you check the oven safe box on amazon, it reduces the amount of loaf pans they carry from over 300 to 23.

any recommendations for good loaf pans, I'd only use it for bread, not meatloaf. Ideally, I want a medium 8x4 loaf pan because I have an older bread book for which 90% of the recipes are for that size of a loaf (the book is from before fat america supersized everything in the 80s and 90s) so the recipes are very tricky to resize for a 9x5 loaf pan.

Silicone, baby. Go with silicone.

Silicone, baby. Go with silicone.

Seconded!

Have you thought about stonewear?

Well this looks nice, but stonewear will discolor http://www.amazon.com/6003-Stone-Bakewa ... 831&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stainless might work but I worry about sticking issues with steel and figure anything this shiny will not brown bread very well on the crust: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ET ... r_asin_lnk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the only ceramic based 'nonstick' loaf pan I could find and it's something of an odd shape http://www.amazon.com/Kaiser-Bakeware-L ... 131&sr=1-7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hadn't really considered silicone, is it chemically inert? Can it stand temperatures above 500? Does it result in a nice brown crust? how robust are they? do they deform at all?

I use a silicone cake pan (haven't tried my loaf pans yet) and I get really great results. Mine are oven safe up to 500.

Adam, if you want to avoid non-stick, I'd second going with stoneware. Well-enameled pieces really shouldn't discolor if cared for properly. I think stoneware will give you the heat retention you're looking for and be easy to clean.

Also, wow your wedding is SO SOON! I can't wait for pictures and recaps!

You have to be careful with stoneware - the fact that they broke when you first washed them is possibly because some stoneware should be tempered, not washed, before use. Stoneware absorbs like crazy, so you don't wash it with soap, just water. But if you're looking for "pretty", I'd say it's not really the way to go, since it's usually the uglier stoneware is, the better it cooks.

ETA: Nevermind, I looked at Paula Deen stoneware and it's more like corningware, so I have no clue why it broke (other then being, as you said, a piece of junk). I'm used to Pampered Chef stoneware.

Oh man, I thought David and I were going to stab each other while addressing wedding invitations last night.

Hot, sticky apartment, paper strewn everywhere, not enough stamps, What Do You MEAN I Have To Write Those Ones All Over Again?!, and It Would Make Me Deeply Unhappy To Send Out The Envelope Like That Because You Left His Wife's Name Off And Do You Have Any Idea How Rude That Is?!

Kind of hilarious in the aftermath and we laughed pretty hard about it this morning, but oh man, we wanted to strangle one another at the time. I wonder if all that lovely negative energy will burst out of the invitations when they're opened. Please come to our wedding! We are so freaking mad at each other right now!

Halfway done. Can't wait to get these things out of the damn apartment!

Double post!

Invitation pictures for Ali (and sundry).

The entire suite.
Top Row L-R: Info card, Rehearsal Dinner invite, Garden of Love stamps
Bottom Row L-R: RSVP postcard, Invitation, brown craft paper envelope
Far Left: "Belly Band" (stack all four pieces, wrap band around to secure)








They were designed by the lovely, kind, and oh-so-talented Janelle.

I really like the paper flowers and belly band! Who did the printing?

David and I printed them ourselves on a regular home printer! We got lots of AMAZING tips as to how to do it cheaply (namely, buy artist's sketch pads and cut them to size, rather than spending tons of money on cardstock).

A friend did the actual design, right?

Either way, I love it. I'm not a great authority a lot of the times at what "is" a person, even if I have known them my whole life, but I think I can comfortably say I think those invitations are very you.

Oh my goodness! I LOVE them so much. Those are seriously beautiful invitations. Wow. So gorgeous.

I'm glad you guys love them just as much as I do! I think they're just stunning.

A friend did the actual design, right?

Absolutely. I can't take credit for anything but pressing the print button. Janelle designed them. (She who was once known around these parts as Virmoli).

Absolutely amazing! I love everything about them, and they just seem soooo you!

Those are amazing! She did a great job. And clearly you have wonderful taste.

Janelle, (if you happen to read this) you do amazing work!!!

Beautiful!!!

Thanks for sharing, Kelly, those are so lovely.

4 days including today!

we booked our Luau last night. Old LaHaina Lu'au.

And ziplining, we went with the older ziplining tour because it was shorter (only 3.5 hours rather than 5) and less expensive. It was the first zipline in Maui, so they've technically 'lost' the ziplining arms race for most fancy vistas, but it'll be fun and I"ve always wanted to do it.

Happy wedding day, Adam!

Yay for a wedding day! (And on my parent's anniversary!)

I hope everything is going just perfectly! (Also, you got my gift card, right? I sent it from Brian's account and then thought that maybe you'd be confused and not know if was from me.)

Yay Weddings!

Woo! Hope you have an amazing day!

Um, it was pretty much the best wedding in the history of weddings. I know this because at least 90% of the attendees knew the entire set of lyrics to "Ice, Ice Baby."

(I just got back, oh, 8 minutes ago and have to head to work in about 20 so no pictures for now but let's just say Pwebbers brought sexy back this weekend.)

Yay! Can't wait to see pics!